


Veritas

by stelthykat



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Extended Scene, Gen, mentions of car crash and blood/death, spoilers for s03 ep 24 "boo normal"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 06:20:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17637416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelthykat/pseuds/stelthykat
Summary: A continuation of the ending scene in "Boo Normal".





	Veritas

**Author's Note:**

> Not edited or anything special, just a little extension of the talk in the lab between Lucifer and Ella after the episode "Boo Normal" written as a little warm up before I dove headlong into working on my novel. "Veritas" is Latin the English translation is "Truth" 
> 
> I do not own any of the characters, or situations that honor goes to Fox and DC comics. The bad writing however, that honor goes to me!

Ella paused, her exuberant hands coming to resto on the microscope base. “Thanks for listening to me drone on.” She smiled, “I know it bores the pants off of you.”

Lucifer’s face briefly melted into something softer, something not guarded yet not completely honest. “Anything that’s important to you could never be boring to me.” He smiled, reaching a hand out and touching her arm briefly before easing back into his chair. “That’s what friends are for, hm?” she nodded, her face lowering as her fingers danced around the stand nervously.

“Yeah…” she stayed silent for a long moment and it struck Lucifer how much her and Azrael were alike. The nervous ticks, the long silences when they weren’t certain anyone cared enough to listen, the utter joys on their faces when they finally realized that someone was listening and caring about what they said. “Thanks anyway, it means a lot.” she drummed her fingers idly, her face a mask of indecision. Lucifer felt his heart falter, felt his body tremble as she reminded him a little more of the little Azrael sitting by his side and sobbing. “My brothers and I we get along fine but, well, I’m a scientist and they’re tradesmen.” he heard the slight undertone in tradesmen. “My dad worked at the GM plant, so we grew up around cars. We don’t know how to talk about topics other than cars around each other.”

He stayed silent, letting her take her time. He had always been a good listener, the more complicated people hardly ever told you sins, they preferred to show you in all the lascivious ways imaginable.

“So when I go home I gotta leave all the lab talk behind, go back to talkin’ ‘bout cars and the trades and hoping that they drink enough so I can go someplace and pretend I’m somewhere else.” she looked up at him, her eyes wet and her mouth upturned in a small smile. “So it means a lot to have someone actually here, engaging.”

“Anything for you Miss Lopez.” he smiled. “Dad knows I’ve had several millennia of _engaging_ people in various activities.” he smiles broader at her, hoping that the innuendo helps her dig out of whatever melancholy she’s in.

“Geesh you ever hear the saying not to ‘kiss and tell’?” her smile was playful, back to the usual banter they so often did back and forth that drove the Detective up a wall.

“But what fun is that?” he tugged his jacket back into straightness, stretching upwards and holding himself in that pristine way he had always had. “People like talking, especially to me.” he slowly stood up, nodding to her with a final pat on her arm, “If there’s anything you ever need to say Miss Lopez, you know I’ll be ready, willing and able to _engage_.” It was so easy to tease her, to fall back into the little parts of him that still remembered being an older brother, to fall back into the eons old habit of sibling annoyance. He had just turned to leave when he felt her hand clench around his forearm like a vice. He looked back at her, watching as her eyes grew wetter, as her shoulders shook and her fingers dug into his skin rather painfully.

“There is something, I mean, I want to tell you something but I can’t quite…” she dug her fingers in harder and he sighed in acknowledgement, settling back down in the chair.

“Take your time Miss Lopez.” he placed his hand on top of hers, gently running his thumb over the thin skin and trying his damndest not to think about the many times he had done this with Azrael…. Or the times he had mutilated some wayward artists hand in Hell.

“It’s just I think you’re gonna think I’m crazy and I know that that’s a stupid thought because well…. I mean you pretend your the Devil - not that there’s anything wrong with that y’know cause there’s not but I just don’t want this to ruin what we have because all the other times I’ve been honest I’ve been left alone and I just want to…” she paused in her babbling a thin trail of wetness lapping at her cheek. “I just know that I have to be honest with my friends, even if it kills me to do it, even if you think I’m nutso.”

Lucifer stayed silent for a moment, continuing the even strokes of his thumb before he lowered his voice. “Miss Lopez you never have to be honest if you don’t desire to be. There is such a thing as ‘selective omission’.” he smiled at her the way he reserved for the Detective. He hoped that that would belay her line of thought, that he would be able to make an escape and have a few more months or years before she brought it up again. He didn’t want to talk about Ray Ray, not now, not when everything was still so fresh and raw it absolutely made his skin crawl.

“When I was little I was in this accident.” she breathed, her eyes flitting down to his thumb, “It was really, really bad and there was so much blood, so much everything that I just shut my eyes and waited to die.” she looked at him with a sad smile, “I just remember hurting and listening to my brothers scream and I knew that it wasn’t good, that we weren’t going to live and I remembered all the Father’s sermons about Heaven and Hell and I just kept thinking ‘I did so many bad things’ and I realized that Jay and Ricardo were quiet and my dad wasn’t asking if we were okay so I opened my eyes and-” she nodded, “Well there was this girl. And she was standing there and I thought she was from the other car, but I was upside down and still buckled in so i scrambled and told her to stay there. She was covered in blood and she was just looking so - so lost that I had to help her so I got out of the mess and I went up to her and I just sat there, trying to keep her calm till help came y’know.” Ella dried her eyes, sighing with a smile, “She was dead, Lucifer. She wasn’t there, no one could see her so I tried to reason it away. I thought it was a coping mechanism to deal with the trauma, an imaginary friend, a psychotic break - the meds were awful by the way never let Linda put you on meds if they make you feel bad.”

“But I quite like drugs,” he offered, keeping his tone even and steady, a small quip to make her more at ease. She gave a small chuckle accompanied by an eye roll.

“I just, I see a ghost. Ray Ray is a ghost. And people may not understand it but she’s - she’s real and she comes around and God I hope she’s real cause if not I’m totally whacked.” Ella looked at him, her eyes studying him sharpley.  
Lucifer stared back, his eyes tracing her face and noting the concern. She reminded him so much of Azrael now that he stopped and noticed it. She was clever and trusting, soft with a core of steel. She needed affirmation that it was alright, that she was wanted, that you were okay. The both of them had always been full of life.

“Say something?” her voice was small, “Chloe was okay with it. I mean if you’re not if you think I’m-”

“Miss Lopez,” he smiled up at her, “Ella, you are many things but crazy is not one of them.”

Her face brightened, “You think so?”

He hummed, shrugging nonchalantly, “Oh you’re definitely perceptive, clever, witty and sincere. A bit too happy ninety-five percent of the time but you are most definitely not crazy.” he had barely finished the sentence when a lithe body enveloped him in a hug, arms squeezing around his neck as though they wanted to decapitate him.

“Thanks Luce.” it was quiet, so different from the boisterous Ella he had come to know. She pulled back slowly smile spreading wider until it erupted into a sharp giggle. “I dunno why I was worried that a guy pretending he’s the Devil would think I’m crazy. But I just - I’m happy that you don’t think that. It means a lot.”

“Ella you have my word that one day everything will make sense.” because one day she would be dying, and Azrael would come to fetch her and drag her off to the Silver City or worse yet (he trembled a bit) Hell. If Lucifer knew anything about his younger sister it was that when she came to collect Ella she would reveal her wings, whisper to her of all the glories of Above and all the depravities of Below, and then Ella would understand.

Or there could be a slip up in judgement, a mistake on his part, and she would find out sooner. It really was a fifty-fifty in his book.

“You sound like Ricardo,” she groused, “He’s always saying ‘Ella it’ll come full circle’ or ‘Ella you’ll know when it’s time’.” she blew a strand of hair out of her face and pulled off her gloves. “I know you have Amenadiel but you sound an awful lot like a big brother, you got any more siblings?” she smiled slyly at him.

His mind flashed to Uriel, blood on his hands still warm and wet. To Azrael who probably had no clue that her brother hadn’t killed him in self defense but instead had killed him to save a human. He thought of Azrael who eons ago clutched at his arms as they terrorized their older siblings, remembered through a haze the nights spent lying awake listening to her talk and drone on about anything. He looked at Ella, his face contorted into a small grimace before he snorted.

“Too many to name, Miss Lopez.” he gently removed her hand from his and stood up. “And none that I kept especially close.” because how close could you be when you had been abandoned and forgotten? He took a step away, smiling at her. He had reached the doorway when he heard her.

“Hey, Lucifer?” he turned, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Sometimes….” she licked her lips, eyes shifting back to the microscope before meeting his again, “It’s okay if you ever want to talk, y’know? I’ve seen a lot of stuff I can’t explain and Ray Ray is proof of that. So I just wanted you to know that it’s okay if you want to y’know…. I won’t judge you.” she smiled, “You believe me so I believe you. It’s what friends do.”

He smiled at her, shoved his hands in his pockets before walking out the door.

It felt good to be wanted.


End file.
